The California native has the fire to keep fighting but understands
time runs out on all men. The former Shooto,
Strikeforce
and EliteXC
champion has lost three of his last four fights, the latest setback
the most crushing of all. Shields entered his PFL 3 clash with
Ray
Cooper III on July 5 as the biggest betting favorite on the
entire card. The betting lines seemed logical considering their
resumes: Shield owned wins over Carlos
Condit, Robbie
Lawler, Tyron
Woodley and Dan
Henderson, while Cooper was 2-2 over his previous four
appearances, entered their battle on the heels of a defeat and had
been submitted three times already.

Despite what seemed like a tailor-made situation for Shields,
Cooper had other plans. The 25-year-old Hawaiian stuffed Shields’
takedown attempts and pummeled him to a second-round technical
knockout. The setback left Shields in a state of disbelief.

“It’s definitely a little shocking,” he said. “Watching him fight,
I did think he was a huge power puncher with knockout power in both
hands, but I thought he had some holes in his grappling.”

With that in mind, Shields pushed early for the clinch and, in
hindsight, concedes he probably attacked too aggressively.

“In the fight, I just tried to rush it too fast,” Shields said. “I
think I underestimated his wrestling a little bit.”

Another factor in Shields’ approach was the PFL format, where early
stoppages score extra points, boost a fighter’s place in the
standings and theoretically lead to a higher playoff seed.

“I think [it played] a little bit [of a role],” Shields said. “I’m
going out there thinking, ‘I want to get this first-round finish.’
Instead of taking my time, I kind of rushed at him. I think that’s
what got me caught.”

When Shields faces Terrado, he will be fighting for the second time
in six weeks. Now 39, he has not fought more than three times in a
calendar year since 2007 but feels cautiously optimistic about
handling the quick turnaround, physically and mentally.

“It’s definitely tough going right back into a camp, [but] I still
feel I’m able to train a lot and push,” Shields said. “I don’t
really feel like I’m slowing down too much.”

After taking a week off to recover, Shields returned to training
with a more measured approach since he believes he overworked
himself for the Cooper fight. On occasion, he was in the gym seven
days a week. In the final stages of preparation for Terrado at the
Renzo
Gracie Academy in New York, Shields scaled back.

“I did slightly less, still doing a lot, but toned it down a little
bit,” he said.

Shields and Terrado find themselves in similar predicaments, having
lost their season openers in decisive fashion. The welterweight
competition has resulted in a number of finishes, and the top five
fighters in the standings are in strong position to make the
playoffs. That leaves Shields and his latest counterpart to compete
with five other men for the final three spots. He respects
Terrado’s abilities.

“I watched a bunch of his fights, and he looked a lot better than
he looked [against Magomed Magomedkerimov],” Shields said.
“Overall, I don’t see a lot of holes, but in his last fight, he
definitely seemed overwhelmed, and the guy got him down and choked
him.”

Shields would undoubtedly enjoy following Magomedkerimov’s lead
while staving off any further thoughts of retirement.

“It would definitely be nice to go out there and win, get into the
tournament and end my career a little better,” he said. “I never
wanted to be a guy fighting and losing fights I shouldn’t.”

In a career that includes multiple championships and his role in
headlining major events, winning the million-dollar PFL prize would
represent another significant accomplishment among many --
especially at this late stage of his journey.

“It would be a good achievement,” Shields said. “At my age, to come
back and win, that would be pretty impressive.”